Monthly Archives: April 2011

RAM raiders was the cute term used in the UK in the 90s for thieves that broke into offices to steal D-Ram memory chips inside workers’ computers, as opposed to the original ram-raider jewel thieves who rammed storefronts with their vans to loot the premises. Those 16 megabyte chips, which could be worth $60 each at that time of shortages, are worth nothing now, but multi-gigabyte Nand Flash memory chips may be taking their place as targets for heists. Read more

UberMedia, which owns several applications that interface with Twitter, is planning to build a social network that could compete with the microblogging platform, CNN reports. Two months ago, Twitter had briefly suspended access to UberMedia products twidroyd and UberSocial from its site.

Worldwide shipments of personal computers declined in the first quarter of 2011, contrary to expectations of modest growth, due to competition from tablets, disruptions in Japan, and increased fuel and commodity prices. Read more

US broker Jefferies & Co says it believes Apple is about to launch a new video-focused cloud-based service, International Business Times reports. The broker adds that this fresh assault on the living room could mean the launch of a new Apple device.

Desktop PCs with two monitors are becoming a common sight, but laptops with two screens…? Not unless you’re seeing double. That could change with devices like Toshiba’s Mobile Monitor, which the Japanese company has shown for the first time along with a new range of high-performance business laptops. Read more

Amazon has announced it is to sell its Kindle e-reader for $25 less than the lowest current list price — with adverts and other types of sponsored content, PaidContent reports. The first companies to advertise include Buick, Chase, Olay, and Visa and the promotions will appear on either the screen saver or the bottom of the home page.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the identical twins who claimed Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for building the social network that became Facebook, lost their final battle with the company in US courts on Monday, exhausting their legal options for claiming any further stake in the company.

The Winklevosses, whose initial claims against Facebook were popularised in the film, The Social Network, asked the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in January to dissolve the handwritten settlement agreement they signed with Facebook, including cash and stock valued at $65m.

A new “Direct Mode” feature being launched this week by Eye-Fi, the Wi-Fi-enabled SD memory card people, could change the relationship between our digital cameras and the cellphones and tablets we carry with us.

Cameras using upgraded Eye-Fi cards will be able to wirelessly transfer photos and videos direct to their smartphones and devices like the iPad, without taking their usual route to the “cloud” and then onto users’ PCs or online photo services.

A new “Direct Mode” feature being launched this week by Eye-Fi, the Wi-Fi-enabled SD memory card people, could change the relationship between our digital cameras and the cellphones and tablets we carry with us. Cameras using upgraded Eye-Fi cards will be able to wirelessly transfer photos and videos direct to their smartphones and devices like the iPad, without taking their usual route to the “cloud” and then onto users’ PCs or online photo services. Read more

When you have $58bn in the bank you can afford to think big. If any other company had just put down $168m to back a solar power plant – particularly one based on technology that has yet to be used at this scale – it would surely have caused some waves.

But for Google, which on Monday became a significant equity investor in a project that is set to double the output of solar-generated electricity in the US, it just seemed like business as usual. Read more

Intel has launched its first major effort to win market share in tablet devices, while revealing how it will defend the netbook market it dominates from this year’s slate onslaught. The world’s biggest chipmaker is announcing the availability of its first chip specifically designed for tablets and is giving a sneak peek at its developer forum in Beijing this week of its next-generation netbook chip. Read more

Well, that didn’t take long. JT Wang, Acer chairman who is now running the world’s second biggest PC company after its board ousted Gianfranco Lanci, has taken his first step in transforming the company.

Less than a week after the boardroom shakeup, Acer has a new image – literally. The company on Monday unveiled a new logo, replacing the previous version that had been in use for the past decade. Read more

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has agreed to participate in a book about his life, ABC reports. Simon & Schuster announced on Sunday that Walter Isaacson’s “iSteve: The Book of Jobs” will be published in early 2012.

We’ve heard from two sources that the US Department of Justice is about to announce a consent decree with Google over its acquisition of ITA that comes with an interesting twist. As we reported, Google will have to license out ITA technology to other companies for a set period, putting it under government oversight.

But it appears that the DoJ is also creating a new complaints procedure for anyone who thinks the company’s involvement in the travel market leads to deceptive or manipulative practices – including in its core search service. Read more

Kno, which had ambitious plans to launch a dual-screen textbook tablet and a large-format single-screen one for students, is getting out of the hardware business and focusing just on education software. The Silicon Valley start-up announced its decision on Friday along with news of a $30m Series C funding round led by Intel Capital, which contributed $20m. Intel will work with Kno on adapting its software for its own reference designs and Intel Learning platforms, which include the Classmate PC. Read more

The phrase “a war with iPhone” slipped from the mouth of Lenovo’s chairman, Liu Chuanzhi, when the Chinese electronics company launched its smartphone handset – the LePhone – last year. With the recent launch of its first tablet – the LePad – the company hopes to take on Apple again, albeit only in the Chinese market.Read more

Online travel site Expedia is planning to spin off TripAdvisor, in a deal that could value the unit at as much as $4bn, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dara Khosrowshahi, Expedia chief executive, said the recommendation and travel media site had grown to a point that it was now ready to be spun off into a pure-play media company.

The relationship between video game developers and their marketing departments is usually akin to a bulletstorm between two warring sides in one of their shoot-em-up titles. Or so Kudo Tsunoda, creative director for Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller, and Danny Bilson, THQ’s head of core games, implied in speeches at the MI6 video game marketing conference on Thursday – while pointing out that the respective successes of Kinect and THQ’s Homefront game have been forged by exceptions to that rule. Read more

To be chumby8-ed is to be transfixed by a constantly changing 8-in screen informing you of all the weird and wonderful happenings on the web. In addition, the new Chumby8 is part digital photo frame, part internet radio and alarm clock. Read more

Innovations like a cooling system that uses no air conditioning and simplified servers have increased Facebook’s energy efficiency by 38 per cent, compared to conventional leased servers, and decreased costs by 24 per cent. Read more

Archive

About the authors

Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.

Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years. He reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby from 2004 to 2013, before returning to London.

Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.

Robert Cookson is the FT's digital media correspondent in London. He
covers digital enterprise in media, from the music industry to local newspapers and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. A former Hong Kong markets correspondent, he is interested in the interplay
between old media and new technologies.

Hannah Kuchler writes about technology and Silicon Valley from the FT's San Francisco bureau. She covers social media including Facebook and Twitter and the dark and mysterious world of cybersecurity. Hannah has worked for the FT in London, Hong Kong and New York, reporting on everything from British politics to the Chinese internet.

Sarah Mishkin in a correspondent in San Francisco, where she covers payments, e-commerce, and political news on the West Coast. Prior to California, she has worked as an FT reporter in New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and most recently in Taiwan, where she covered Chinese internet companies, semiconductors, and tech supply chains.